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The Web Design Business Kit Chapter 6 - Market Your Business
Making Contact
Send your release to the right person. There’s not much use sending your Internet-related story to the sports journalist! A quick call to the reception desk at those newspapers or television studios you’re targeting should get you the information you need.
How To Distribute Your Release
With the range of distribution outlets available these days, it’s a simple matter to pay a media list to shoot your release off to 500 editors across the country. But is that best?
Should you sit at your fax machine and slowly send out release after release to the editors you’ve targeted? Maybe you should send the release off to an Internet-based service for rapid email distribution.
What's the best way to distribute your release?
The answer to this question will change with the type of release you’re sending. As usual, I’d suggest you test various methods and closely monitor the results. You might find that your Internet-related media releases have great success when distributed via an Internet-based service.
But my big word here would be ‘targeted.’ In my company, we first identify the specific publications or media we want to target, then take a look at what they produce and the news angles they take. After that, it's a simple matter of writing our release specifically for that publication or show, that editor, or that particular journalist.
Sure, this might mean a little extra work, but the results that a well-targeted media campaign can provide can be well worth it.
The Call
It’s all gone well so far. You've sent your media release off to your targeted media contacts and you sit back, imagining your face on the nightly news… and then you get the call.
Suddenly, you have a journalist on the phone who wants more information on the story, and perhaps a quote or 2! What do you do next? You have a couple of options:
- Panic, start um-ing and ah-ing, blurt out a few long-winded answers, and generally squander your opportunity to get your message across.
- Calmly gather all the relevant material you have had sitting on your desk ready for this call, and start the interview.
If you want to take the second option, you’ll need to be ready ahead of time. So, when you prepare your release, prepare for what may happen.
Prepare for the interview. Try to think about what journalists would want to know. In my experience, they want information: they want it concise, they want it relevant, and they want it now. It’s your task to give them what they need to do a good job.
Make it as easy as possible for the media to do their jobs. Most people seem to assume that journalists are hunting around for the dirt, that they'll grab any slip-up you make and turn you into a laughing stock. In my experience, this has not been the case. The vast majority of journalists I've dealt with have been professional, accommodating, and have taken great pride in putting together a story that’s interesting and top quality.
If you don't have much experience with the media, rest assured that they won’t make your life harder. They’ll almost always guide you through the process and make it as easy as possible.
When you’re speaking with the media, try to relax. Imagine the interview is a friendly conversation with someone who wants to learn a bit more about what you have to say, because that is exactly what it is.
So, before you send off the release, make sure you have handy as much information as might be required. Also, have a list of the contact details of the people the journalist might like to interview about your news item. That way, when the press calls, you’ll be ready for action!
The Release Has Been Run! What Now?
The local television station has sent out a journalist to cover your media release and you find yourself featured on the evening news. It makes a big impact for business and lifts the business profile a mile! Fantastic!
What’s next? Do you send the journalist a gift of a dozen bottles of wine, send her out for dinner or just send money? Well, none of the above actually!
Look at this situation from the perspective that we use to approach client care. Anyone who helps your business is doing you a favour. If you reward the behavior, it will be repeated. And, it’s just good manners.
So, what should you do when the media runs your story? Say “thanks.” It's common courtesy. Here is an example letter you might like to use:
Dear John,
Just a quick note to say thanks for coming out to interview me about our business now selling pieces of the moon.
We were thrilled to see how well the story came up on the news, and I just wanted to say thanks for guiding me through it all.
It really helped having a professional treat me with kid gloves so we could look our best. We have had some tremendous
reactions to the story.
Now I know how hard it is to make it look as effortless as you do! Thanks again.
Regards,
Brendon Sinclair
What Not To Do With Your Media Release
First, the confession: I've done this once or twice. I'll never do it again. Scout's honour.
Imagine you've written your release, honed your headline, penned a terrific opening, and presented all your information on one page. Your contact details are all there, the release is well-formatted, and it's newsworthy. You're off to a great start!
Now, you fax or email it to the editors at various media outlets. Terrific. Then, you ring every single person that you faxed the release to, and say those magic words:
"Just checking to see if you got my media release?"
Don't do it. Don't ring. Why not?
- Editors don't enjoy it. They have your release. If it's newsworthy they'll follow up on it. Leave them alone!
- I've done the math and here it is. Let's say you fax your media release to 100 editors. Later, you start the follow-up telephone calls. Each call costs an average of $1 and takes three minutes to make. The tricky part is in actually finding the person you want to speak to. It takes an average of two phone calls to find the person you’re after.
That's 200 phone calls, 600 minutes and $200 you will spend following up that release. For that $200 I could fax a release to another 500 editors! 600 minutes is ten hours. That's a full day's work. Your time could be better spent!
The media has enormous power and influence, and is always looking for good stories to run. If you have a newsworthy story, it might well be run—giving your business tremendous exposure.
Is There An Advantage In Using A PR Agency?
Good PR agencies should have vast experience in assessing whether your media release is newsworthy (and if it isn't, they can provide some suggestions on how to make it newsworthy). If it is newsworthy they can ensure that it’s written in a concise and effective style that will attract the attention of an editor or journalist.
The big advantage of using a PR agency is that the PR person is in the industry. The PR person regularly talks with editors, journalists, and other contacts. The PR person has already established a level of credibility with a circle of journalists.
Think of it this way. Imagine we take two copies of the same release. One is sent to the local newspaper by Joe Smith of Joe's Web Development. It's Joe's first release. The other release is sent to the paper by the PR person.
In a perfect world, they’d both be read. Because the PR person already has credibility with a press contact at the paper, it’s more likely that this person’s release will be read first.
Don't get me wrong. The media is after top quality, newsworthy stories, and doesn't care where they come from. However, the press person’s previous experience with the PR person will go quite a way to getting the release read.
Having said that, I advocate doing it yourself—especially in the early days of your business. Having a PR firm can be very expensive, and if you do it yourself, you’ll develop yet another skill which, in turn, will help grow your business.